Hometeam: Crucial Tomahawk charge wins it

It was a big moment for top-seeded Algonquin Regional on Thursday night. Players and fans got a long-awaited taste of playoff basketball as the top-seeded Tomahawks hosted No. 9 seed Fitchburg High.

Algonquin trailed by as many as 11 points in the second half, but showed it wasn't happy just to be there. The Tomahawks came out blazing in the fourth quarter with a 10-0 run to rally and avoid a one-and-done with a 61-59 Central Mass. Division 1 quarterfinal victory over the upset-minded Red Raiders.

“Oh, my God, my senior year, this means the world to me,” said senior guard Brandon Lukoff, who scored a game-high 21 points with 10 rebounds. “I was on the team sophomore year, we were 2-18, we were down in the dumps. To get a guy like A.J. (Brodeur), Mike Stamas coming into the program, bringing our wins way up there… to get a playoff win like this is unbelievable in front of the home crowd.”

“I think the kids finally looked at each other in the huddle after I walked away, and they said, 'We're not going to lose this game,' ” coach Brian Doherty said. “That's pretty special. They get along very well and they took it personally at the end.”

Lukoff said a similar situation back when Algonquin (20-1) beat St. John's on the road on Feb. 21 helped the Tomahawks keep their poise, and, lo and behold, those two will meet again at WPI's Harrington Auditorium on Sunday night.

The Tomahawks will square off with the five-time defending CMass champion Pioneers, the No. 5 seed, at 7 p.m. in the nightcap of a Division 1 district semifinal doubleheader.

Six-foot-8 sophomore A.J. Brodeur had 18 points, 17 rebounds and 6 blocks in a gutsy performance. He tweaked his left ankle with 1:35 left in the first half.

“Right before the half, I just went up and landed wrong on my ankle and bent it, went in and taped it up, came back in the third quarter,” Brodeur said. “Obviously, it was holding me down a little bit, but I tried not to let it get to me too much.”

Brodeur scored eight points in the fourth quarter and hit free throws with 5:32 to play to give Algonquin its first lead, 48-47, since midway through the second quarter. He also converted the winning shot on a finger-roll layup with 24 seconds remaining.

Lukoff served as the emotional catalyst in key moments. He converted a rare four-point play in the first quarter to give Algonquin the early momentum and also drew a technical foul on Fitchburg's Mick Snowden with 41 seconds left.

Stamas, a sophomore, scored 10 of his 12 points on foul shots, none of them bigger than the two he hit off the technical to narrow Fitchburg's lead to 59-58.

The Red Raiders (13-9) lived and died by the 3-pointer, hitting from outside 11 times, including six 3s in the second quarter to jump to a 30-24 halftime lead.

“Coming down the stretch, we did, in a couple of our timeouts, we talked about getting stuff going to the basket and not settling,” Fitchburg coach Jack Scott said. “Regardless of how many 3s we've taken in a game, I'm never going to tell a kid to pass up an open look like we had in the (second) quarter.”

Senior big man Chuck Doss led Fitchburg with 16 points, including a pair of 3s, while sophomore Anthony Salome had three treys en route to 11 points.

The Red Raiders' six-point lead at intermission stayed roughly the same, 47-40, heading into the fourth quarter, but Algonquin rallied.

Contact Carl Setterlund at sports@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @tgsports.